ACTION ALERTS
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Find EVENTS here.
ACTIONS
SAVE the DATE: MARCH 28: Next NO KINGS march! Join us to stand up for democracy!
RALLIES: No Kings Days: See photos here!
- Physicians and Nurses Stand Up Against ICE
- WATCH the video of the recent SF Bay PSR at Human Banner Protest on Ocean Beach SF!
- SIGN & UPDATES: Make Polluters Pay & Feb 12 Training
- Feb 5: SAVE the New Start Treaty
- Feb 25: SAVE San Francisco’s Climate Plan & Equity Hub
- UPDATES & SAVE the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
- SAVE the CA Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)
- TELL Congress: Prevent a Dangerous New Nuclear Arms Race
- READING: Articles We Recommend
UPDATES
- 2026: Support Air District Zero-Emission Home Appliance Rules
- Keep Coal Out of Oakland!
- Close Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant
- And more below
SF Bay PSR works diligently to advance science- and health-based policy and regulatory solutions to the interlinked public health emergencies of militarization and nuclear weapons, systemic racism and social inequity, environmental degradation, and the climate crisis.
Safeguarding and Strengthening Democracy:
Physicians and Nurses have been Standing Up Against ICE
SF Bay PSR stands in solidarity with the victims of ICE’s inhuman and unconstitutional actions across the country and murders in Minneapolis, and with the physicians in Minnesota who recently hosted a press conference against ICE. As with so many of the administration’s actions, once again they claim that ICE is protecting our citizens, but that is yet another misdirection intended to disguise the harm that ICE is inflicting.
- Please WATCH the physician-led press conference here.
- READ No Funds for ICE letter signed by SF Bay PSR and 1,025 organizations
- A MUST-READ: American democracy on the brink a year after Trump’s inauguration, experts say
- America has reached a tipping point on fascism – and on opposition to it, Robert Reich
- A knock at the door: fear of ICE is transforming daily life in America
With the backdrop of ICE and DHS terrorizing our communities, the Senate is voting on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) appropriations bill. If passed, this bill would continue to fund Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, which has resulted in the deaths of immigrants and U.S. citizens alike.
Throughout 2026: Join SF Bay PSR Members at Human Banner Protests!
If you have been watching with broken hearts what is happening in our country and want to do more, join SF Bay PSR members and friends at HUMAN BANNER protests at Ocean Beach, San Francisco throughout this year. Bring other members of the health community!
We will post dates and registration links as they are announced.
Ocean Beach, San Francisco, Stairwell 17, look for the white coats
Directly across from the Beach Chalet — 1000 Great Highway
Closest intersection is Fulton and Great Highway
ATTIRE: Where your white coat if you have one!
WATCH the JAN 31 Human Banner video here!
Support Make Polluters Pay!
Though this year’s bill died, we are continuing to push for future legislation—it is a long game.
The week of January 26-30, community members across California hosted events and efforts to support the movement to establish a climate superfund.
SF Bay PSR intern Daphney Saviotti-Orozco and EJ Policy Associate Bailey Ward circulated our student sign-on, this time at Contra Costa College on January 29, to build student support and gather more signatures. Daphney also submited an op-ed on Make Polluters Pay, drawing on her personal experience growing up next to a refinery. Through organizing, community engagement, and storytelling, they are working to highlight why communities should not bear the costs of climate and health harms.
NOTICE: We updated our sign-on letters.
Due to the original California bills (SB 684 / AB 1243) no longer moving through the legislature, we have adjusted our letters to support a general Make Polluters Pay Climate Superfund rather than the specific bills. Despite the bills not making it through the legislature, we hope to continue building momentum on this campaign to show legislators how much support there is for future bills. Please let us know if you would like your signature removed from the updated letter, info@sfbaypsr.org. If you would like to remain on the letter, no action is needed!
For too long, fossil fuel companies have harmed public health and profited while our communities end up paying the price for climate disasters. The Make Polluters Pay Week of Action is about shifting that cost back where it belongs — onto the corporations that knowingly caused the damage.
This movement isn’t just about one policy — it’s about a simple principle: if you cause the harm, you should help pay for the repair.
ACTIONS
Help us collect more signatures in support of the climate superfund! Share SF Bay PSR’s letter for health professionals and advocates in support of Make Polluters Pay. Though this year’s bill died, we are still planning to submit these letters to show legislators how much support there is for future bills.
READ updated letter & SIGN HERE
Note: SF Bay PSR never shares your contact info.
Are you or do you know any students? SF Bay PSR’s amazing interns have created a Student and Recent Graduate Sign-on letter. STUDENTS, SIGN HERE
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Make Polluters Pay Advocacy Training for Health Professionals
Co-sponsored by SF Bay PSR and fellow health advocacy groups
February 12, noon-1:30pm PT, online
REGISTER
Join health professional colleagues from across the country to learn about how to make the most of your voice to safeguard the health of our communities by advocating to hold polluters accountable for the health harms of fossil fuels. We will learn how to use a carefully developed narrative developed by the Fossil Free for Health (FFH) Coalition— linking science, equity, and lived experience through powerful storytelling and advocacy engagement. We hope you’ll join us to boost your advocacy skills and connect with the community working for the success of visionary Make Polluters Pay campaigns!
READ MORE about the ongoing Make Polluter Pay Campaign
BRAVO! SF Bay PSR Intern Daphney Saviotti-Orozco and Board Members Dr. Bret Andrews and Dr. Bonnie Hamilton joined many health and climate justice advocates for the Make Polluters Pay Rally in Sacramento on May 27, 2025. These are the kind of real-life advocacy experiences that make our internship program so meaningful.
BRAVO! Dr. Bret Andrews, SF Bay PSR board member, joined up with PSR-LA; Dr. Linda Rudolph, Climate for Health leader; Jane Fonda; and CA community groups at the Make Polluters Pay press conference in Sacramento on April 29, 2025.
We Need A Post-New Start Agreement to Limit Nuclear Weapons
The New Start Treaty expires on February 5, 2026. The agreement is a successor to over 30 years of previous agreements that limited the deployment of dangerous nuclear warheads and restricted the arms race at the height of the Cold War. The Treaty cannot be extended, and there are no ongoing negotiations. Public awareness of the issue is at an all-time low. This needs to change.
Nuclear weapons affect every living thing on the planet, their existence a literal “Doomsday Machine” that can end human civilization in half an hour. Agreements like New Start have played an essential role in limiting the risk posed by nukes. Proposals for nuclear modernization already exceed $1 trillion, while estimates for a new nuclear missile defense system (Golden Dome) range from $831 billion to $3.6 trillion. All while the production and testing of nuclear weapons have poisoned hundreds of thousands of people. We are up against some difficult challenges, but we can make a positive difference.
In the weeks and months ahead SF Bay PSR will be working with our networks to:
- Create stronger pressure for a renewal of common sense U.S.-Russian disarmament diplomacy and the start of bilateral U.S.-China nuclear risk reduction talks
- Campaign against the start of a U.S. nuclear weapons buildup after New START expires
- Oppose the resumption of nuclear weapons testing for any reason
- Point out that “Golden Dome” is not a serious solution. It doesn’t exist, it won’t work, its exorbitantly expensive, and it will only drive China and Russia to expand their strategic nuclear arsenals to be able to overwhelm and/or evade any future U.S. missile defenses.
- We can take comfort in the fact that the American people are with us according to a recent survey.
ACTION
Email Your Members of Congress! We need our leaders to lead on eliminating these threats, and more importantly, action from the public.
SEND EMAILS HERE
Note that SF Bay PSR never shares your contact info.
THANK YOU!
Support Funding San Francisco’s Climate Plan
SF Bay PSR has been working with the SF Climate Emergency Coalition to support SF’s Climate Action Plan (CAP), Environmental Department, and Climate Equity Hub to ensure that all San Franciscan’s can benefits from a just transition to electric buildings which provide improved air quality and health benefits.
Help us to advocate for funding of SF Climate Plan and government restructuring to ensure the plan can be implemented in an efficient, accountable, and timely manner.
Why is this important?
San Francisco approved a detailed and comprehensive Climate Action Plan in 2021 with a top-line goal of net-zero GHG emissions by 2040. Some progress toward this goal has been made, but we are now in danger of going backwards in our fight to mitigate climate change. Mayor Lurie and the Board of Supervisors recently approved a 2-year budget that revokes virtually all funding for programs critical to implementing the CAP. Without changes, staff will be laid off and successful projects will grind to a halt. In the face of rising climate catastrophe, this is simply unacceptable.
The federal government’s abdication of any climate action only underscores the need for forward-thinking cities like San Francisco to lead the way, ensuring we don’t get left behind as the rest of the world accelerates in this critical energy and economic transition. San Francisco is uniquely poised as a center of innovation and progressive values to forge ahead, demonstrating how to take meaningful action on one of the greatest challenges of our time.
ACTIONS
SAVE San Francisco’s Climate Action Plan and Equity Hub!
The situation is URGENT! The current City budget proposal mandates such drastic cuts to SF Environment Department (SFE) that would cut most of its climate program staff, with years of climate action expertise.
SIGN to ask Mayor Lurie to fund and support SF’s Climate Plan!
How it will be delivered? The SF Climate Emergency Coalition will deliver the petition to Mayor Lurie after the rally.
RALLY at San Francisco City Hall
Wednesday, February 25, noon, in person!
Front Steps 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, San Francisco
REGISTER so we can gauge who many folks will be there!
At extreme risk:
- 7.8 full-time-equivalent staff positions
- Climate action planning & performance oversight
- Building electrification, including the Climate Equity Hub which SF Bay PSR supports along with EJ community-based nonprofits
- Elimination of gas-fired landscaping equipment
- EV charging
- Biodiversity Also at risk are millions in future grants
Since 2022-23, the tiny General Fund support of SF Environment Dept has brought in $29 for every dollar invested. Spending on SFE is leverage, not overhead. During his campaign, the mayor wrote that “we need large scale public sector investments in climate infrastructure and electrification” and that he “will prioritize climate action not just in words, but in dollars and policy.” He ignored his own words.
People expect San Francisco to lead —but on this all-encompassing issue we are going backwards. San Franciscans need to know what’s really happening. Please come to City Hall front steps on Feb 25 at noon and show your commitment to strong local climate leadership. Bring a banner if you have one! In San Francisco, the buck stops with Mayor Lurie.
We need to remind him!
SF Bay PSR was so impressed with SF Youth Commissioner Jin Valencia-Tow’s speech in support of SF’s Climate Plan—we gained permission to share it with our members! We highly recommend that you read it here!
SAVE the Environmental Protection Agency—Update
SF Bay PSR has joined a national letter calling on Congress to hold the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) accountable and to require Administrator Lee Zeldin to testify. The EPA is abandoning its core mission to protect human health and the environment. Instead, it is pursuing an aggressive de-regulatory agenda that is already increasing harmful air pollution, toxic chemical exposure, and climate-heating greenhouse gases. These actions endanger our children, our communities, and the health of communities across the country for generations to come.
READ MORE about the devastation of the EPA and what we have been doing about it here.
We urge Congress to exercise its oversight authority and ensure that EPA fulfills its mandate—starting by calling Administrator Zeldin to testify. The cost to industry is being put above human lives and this should concern us all.
ACTIONS
Please email your congressional representative with these PSR National Action links:
Health professionals say Zeldin Must Go
Tell EPA to protect our health from dirty coal ash
READING
NY Times: EPA to Stop Considering Lives Saved When Setting Rules on Air Pollution
Guardian: ‘Shameful’: Trump’s EPA accused of prioritizing big business over public health
Save the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)
Tell CA Legislature to FIX the CEQA Bill
What does CEQA do? The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) was written to protect the people and natural regions of California from the harmful effects of industry and other development. It requires that projects analyze their potential effects on air, water, and other environmental factors, and mitigate any significant negative impacts.
Four provisions make CEQA particularly effective where permits and other regulatory measures fall short. The law provides for meaningful community engagement; requires the assessment of alternative project sites; analyzes cumulative environmental impacts; and can trigger the application of other protective laws, including air and water quality laws and waste management permits.
CEQA is one of the few tools available to overburdened communities to discover and limit the impacts of potentially harmful developments.
By exempting all “advanced manufacturing” facilities from CEQA, SB 131 threatens to expose our state’s most vulnerable populations to undisclosed and unmitigated industrial hazards. California is counting on the Legislature to uphold its commitment to fix SB 131. The “advanced manufacturing” CEQA exemption must be removed if California is to protect its people, preserve sensitive ecosystems, and deliver a more sustainable future.
What does CEQA NOT do? CEQA does not require the delay of projects: For example, in San Francisco, only 7 out of 120 housing projects (5.8%) conducted a full Environmental Impact Report (EIR) between 2018–2020.
CEQA does not stop projects: The CEQA process does not provide a mechanism to block projects. In rare cases, third parties have challenged the validity of CEQA reports, though fewer than two out of every 100 projects (1.9%) were litigated under CEQA between 2013 and 2021. When lawsuits did occur, they generally improved projects through mitigation. Reports on CEQA show benefits.
CA legislators made a commitment and must be held accountable to fix SB 131. AB 1083, the bill that would have cleaned up SB 131, is no longer moving forward. As a result, SB 131’s broad exemption for “advanced manufacturing” facilities will remain unchanged. Industrial projects ranging from lithium battery plants to chemical processing to semiconductor manufacturing will be constructed throughout California with no environmental review or mitigation. Many projects are already in motion, including a 500 MW geothermal plant in Imperial Valley proposing to power AI data centers, as well as a chemical recycling plant in Rohnert Park sited less than 1,000 feet from a high school. Vulnerable communities will be left completely unprotected from pollution flowing from these facilities, which are known to involve hazardous chemicals including lead, arsenic, and PFAS (forever chemicals). Never in 50 years has the Legislature approved a CEQA exemption for such polluting industrial projects.
Read the Study about CEQA by Housing Workshop
Learn more at CEQA Works
ACTION
Call or email Assembly Speaker, Senate President, and your state representatives.
FIND your state representatives here.
Speaker Robert Rivas: (916) 319-2029
Email: Assemblymember.Rivas@assembly.ca.gov
Senate President Monique Limón: (916) 651- 4021
Email: Senator.Limon@senate.ca.gov
Sample Script:
“My name is [insert name]. I am calling/writing on behalf of [insert organization] regarding the urgent need to fix SB 131. This bill passed on June 30, 2025 but legislators made a commitment to fix the parts of the bill that threaten significant harm to California’s communities and environment. I was distressed to hear that AB 1083, the bill would have cleaned up SB 131, is no longer moving forward.
As a constituent of [Assembly/Senate District __ ], I urge you to push the Legislature to follow through on the below promises:
1. Please remove or narrow SB 131’s exemption for “advanced manufacturing” facilities. This exemption exposes residents to impacts from toxic industrial projects and provides zero protections for environmental justice communities living alongside industrially zoned land.
2. Please amend SB 131’s definition of “natural and protected lands” to include the same protections for sensitive areas that have been standard across CEQA exemption bills, including AB 130. SB 131’s omission of these protections represents a reversal of state policy and must be fixed.
Thank you, again, for all your support in defense of the California Environmental Quality Act.”
Tell Congress: Prevent a Dangerous New Nuclear Arms Race
Eighty years after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the threat of nuclear weapons use is once again rising. The last remaining arms control treaty between the United States and Russia—the New START agreement—will expire on February 5, 2026. Without a follow-on treaty, there will be no limits on the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals for the first time in more than 50 years.
This moment demands action. Common sense limits on nuclear weapons have helped to keep nuclear weapons in check and reduced the risk of nuclear war. Without a follow-on agreement to New START, we face greater instability, higher risk of nuclear conflict, and an enormous new wave of spending on weapons we should be working to eliminate.
Congress can help steer us toward diplomacy and away from disaster. Two sets of bicameral resolutions—H.Res. 100 and H.Res. 317 in the House and S.Res. 61 and S.Res. 323 in the Senate—are our rallying points. H.Res. 100/S.Res. 61 specifically call for urgent negotiations to replace New START, continued U.S. and Russian compliance with current established limits, and separate engagement with China to reduce nuclear risks. H.Res. 317/S.Res. 323 goes further and calls for the United States to pursue a world free of nuclear weapons as a national security imperative.
ACTION
Your health voice matters. Urge your Representative and Senators to co-sponsor these resolutions and publicly support a follow-on agreement before New START expires.
READ MORE
FIND your members of congress and an Email Template HERE
Thank you!
READING
It’s hard to keep up with the news these days. We are working to make that a bit easier for you.
- READ No Funds for ICE letter signed by SF Bay PSR and 1,025 organizations
- A MUST-READ: American democracy on the brink a year after Trump’s inauguration, experts say
- America has reached a tipping point on fascism – and on opposition to it, Robert Reich
- A knock at the door: fear of ICE is transforming daily life in America
Books:
Autocracy Rules for Survival by Masha Gessen
How to Stand Up to a Dictator by Maria Ressa, PBS News Hour Interview
How Fascism Works by Jason Stanely
More articles:
The Trump administration is descending into authoritarianism
Donald Trump is seeking to erase the United States as we know it
Trump’s shocking purge of public health data, explained
American Public Health Association (APHA) Report: Decimated public health systems, a depleted federal workforce and the deletion of safety nets that maintain the health security of America are all outcomes of President Trump’s first 100 days
KQED Forum Radio: How Countries Fall into Autocracy with Anne Applebaum and Steven Levitsky
The authoritarian playbook’: Trump targets judges, lawyers … and law itself
More than 1,900 scientists write letter in ‘SOS’ over Trump’s attacks on science
Economic Policy Institute: Cutting Medicaid to pay for low taxes on the rich is a terrible trade for American families
ONGOING ACTIONS BELOW!
Support Air District Zero-Emission Home Appliance Rules
Sponsored by the Bay Area Clean Air Coalition and SF Bay PSR
The Bay Area has the sixth worst air quality in the country according to the American Lung Association.
The Air District’s first-in-the-nation zero-emission appliance rules (Rules 9-4 and 9-6) are under review — and we will need your health voice in 2026 to protect clean air and public health.
These rules are a vital step toward eliminating harmful pollution from gas-powered furnaces and water heaters — one of the largest sources of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions in the Bay Area, even more than all the region’s cars. These rules are expected to help prevent 15,000 asthma symptom incidents and avoid up to 85 premature deaths every year, and save an estimated $890 million annually in ER visits skipped, lost days of work and school avoided, and family members’ lives extended. These rules would greatly improve health equity and of course, help to protect our climate.
While some flexibility is needed to support residents, especially in low-income communities, we must not allow industry pressure to weaken these life-saving rules or create broad loopholes that undermine their benefits.
We are looking for more health professional volunteers to join our Building Electrification Speakers Bureau. We will train you and provide all the slides and materials. Give talks or table at community fairs and health events. It is impactful and inspiring work! Our Building Electrification program created and distributed health- and equity-focused information to educate about the benefits of electrification. In 2026, we will expand our community outreach through our collaboration with the San Francisco Environment Climate Equity Hub and a series of workshops developed in partnership with the Bayview Hunters Point Community Advocates, ensuring that environmental justice communities benefit from the transition to electric buildings.
Keep Coal Out of Oakland!
Sponsored by No Coal in Oakland
Help prevent the construction of a major coal export terminal on the San Francisco Bay. A recent peer-reviewed Health Impact Study quantifies expected increases in Bay Area negative health outcomes due to emissions from trains that would carry 7.5 million tons of coal per year to the terminal.
ACTION
Live in Oakland? No Coal in Oakland yard signs are available!
REQUEST FORM
If the property is developed as a coal terminal, it could handle from 4 to 15 million tons of coal per year. Each day, one or more uncovered coal trains, each more than a mile long, would spew toxic coal dust and diesel exhaust from Utah to Oakland, including through densely populated environmental justice communities in the East Bay. After a fossil-fueled trip across the Pacific, the coal would be burned, polluting Asian power plant communities and emitting substantial greenhouse gasses. We cannot allow it.
The coalition coordinating this campaign includes: No Coal in Oakland, 350 East Bay, Youth vs. Apocalypse, West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, SF Bay Physicians for Social Responsibility, Sierra Club, SF Baykeeper, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, West Oakland Neighbors, Interfaith Council of Alameda County, Faith in Action
LEARN MORE at No Coal in Oakland.
Below: Image credit: “Fig. 1. Study Area with Estimated PM2.5 Concentrations associated with 2.1 μg/m3 Increase in the Peak of the Annual Average Increment,” from Health impact assessment of PM2.5 from uncovered coal trains in the San Francisco Bay Area: Implications for global exposures, Environmental Research v252 Part 1. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2024.118787
Save Rooftop Solar in CA, an ongoing battle!
Sponsored by Solar Rights Alliance
BACKGROUND
Rooftop solar has been jeopardized in California because of a string of reckless decisions made by the CA Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) at the behest of the utilities. They are working to end net metering, charge solar taxes and other penalties for having solar panels, and even take control of your panels and the electricity they generate. The new solar-user rules, net metering 3 (NEM 3.0), went into effect in April of 2023, and by December, year-over-year sales were down 77-85% and 17,000 solar workers lost their jobs.
- Before NEM 3.0, rooftop solar was growing fastest in middle and working class neighborhoods.
- Now, everyday people have fewer options to control skyrocketing utility bills. And rooftop solar is no longer financially viable for most apartment buildings, farmers, schools, hospitals, etc.
- Also, the state says rooftop solar must triple in order to meet the CA’s goal of getting 100% of our electricity from clean energy. That won’t happen unless rooftop solar becomes more affordable.
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WHAT IS THIS ABOUT? Utility profits!
- Utilities make profits by spending more money – your money – building and maintaining long-distance power lines.
- Because rooftop solar reduces the need to spend as much money on giant wind farms and power lines, utilities make less profit if rooftop solar keeps growing.
- However, utilities still stand to make tons of profit in the years to come, even with rooftop solar. Yet, they are still trying to kill rooftop solar.
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ACTIONS
Tell Governor Newsom and your state legislators to protect rooftop solar in CA.
EMAIL them here using Solar Rights Alliance’s easy tool.
Thank you!
MORE READING
Solar Rights Alliance Blog: CPUC blocks rooftop solar for farms, schools, and many renters. Will state lawmakers overrule them?
KQED CA Morning Report: Solar Industry Battered by New California Rule
LA Times: California needs to get its act together on rooftop solar
READ MORE at Solar Rights Alliance
Prevent California from a Nuclear Disaster
UPDATE: SB 846 passed. This is bad news!
The aging Diablo Canyon Nuclear power plant that is near four earthquake faults will remain active for at least five more years.
We remain OPPOSED to the continued operation of the Diablo Nuclear Power Plant for these reasons:
- It was built on the presumption of no active earthquake faults within 30 kilometers, it is now known there are 4 nearby active faults capable of larger quakes than the plant was designed for. One fault comes within 600 meters of the plant.
- The reactors are aging, with critical upgrades having been avoided because of the presumed shutdown in 2025.
- The attacks on the Zaporizhzhia reactor complex in Ukraine remind the world of the vulnerability of such plants to attack by adversaries / hackers, whether governments or terrorists, and the potential for massive radiation release.
- Spending billions of dollars on the aging Diablo nuclear plant would steal resources that should be used for far more cost-effective renewables and storage, essential for dealing with climate change.